MS Veendam Sail-Away-April 24, 2014

[innlady1]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"]Thanks, POA, for the great screen shot! I stayed up watching until 11:30 but then couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[mamaofami]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]I was up till midnight and then called it quits. Great picture, POA.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[POA1]

[quote name='innlady1'][FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"]Thanks, POA, for the great screen shot! I stayed up watching until 11:30 but then couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]


[quote name='mamaofami'][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3]I was up till midnight and then called it quits. Great picture, POA.[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

I figured since I was up and sitting outside... I might as well give people something to see, especially since a lot of folks stuck around until they couldn't keep their eyes open and had to go to bed. :)

[Chelly]

From Cruisinetta on board:

[FONT="Arial"][SIZE="3"][COLOR="Black"]Compensation....free Mimosas, free bloody marys, $50 obc and 15% off another HAL cruise. Must be new booking. Bummer!!![/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[pv girl]

[quote name='Chelly']From Cruisinetta on board:

[FONT=Arial][SIZE=3][COLOR=Black]Compensation....free Mimosas, free bloody marys, $50 obc and 15% off another HAL cruise. Must be new booking. Bummer!!![/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/quote]

Actually sounds quite fair to me. I know the wait to board was long, but they actually only missed lunch and maybe got a less than normal dinner - $50 OBC for that. Missing HMC is the biggie and 15% seems reasonable for that, as it is about one day's fare. HAL has lost $$$$ on this trip as they surely had to pay OT to all the dock workers last night too. Ship happens and hope the rest of the cruise is great. Looking forward to the pix of the ship build by Cruisinetta - those are always fun!

[Chelly]

Actually sounds quite fair to me. I know the wait to board was long, but they actually only missed lunch and maybe got a less than normal dinner - $50 OBC for that. Missing HMC is the biggie and 15% seems reasonable for that, as it is about one day's fare. HAL has lost $$$$ on this trip as they surely had to pay OT to all the dock workers last night too. Ship happens and hope the rest of the cruise is great. Looking forward to the pix of the ship build by Cruisinetta - those are always fun!

 

I tried telling essentially that to those who were waiting. I can't post the words in the reply.

[PathfinderEss]

I tried telling essentially that to those who were waiting. I can't post the words in the reply.

 

Really, actually it sounds very fair to me too. Maybe they will calm down after a few days on their cruise. I know we have had a few rough beginnings on a few cruises but after we settled in, things didn't seem so tragic.

[Robin7]

Nor the 2nd post dry dock cruise. Ours on the Maasdam in January was not that great.

 

Oh, I hope that's not so! We're on the next Veendam cruise!!!

 

What happened that made it not great???

 

Robin

[GRACECRUISE]

Did the Veendam get the Dive In during dry dock?

[homedepot124]

We were on this cruise and waited 9 hours in Terminal 21 to board the ship. The worse part was the complete lack of information. There was no one from HAL in the terminal - just a terminal worker. It seems to me Carnival Corp should have sent some people up from Miami to take care of the people on this cruise and at least provide good up to date information. I tried to call HAL about 5 hours into the wait and that was a worthless attempt.

 

The other issue is what the heck did the do during dry dock other than next carpet and paint. Elevator #1 was out of service the entire seven day cruise. Also, both of the hot tubs in front of the main pool were closed for the entire trip. Also, lots of little things, like no speech from the captain or anybody from the staff during the Mariners luncheon the last sea day - guess they were afraid to face the crowd. Also, no deck BBQ dinner like on previous cruises.

[Chelly]

We were on this cruise and waited 9 hours in Terminal 21 to board the ship. The worse part was the complete lack of information. There was no one from HAL in the terminal - just a terminal worker. It seems to me Carnival Corp should have sent some people up from Miami to take care of the people on this cruise and at least provide good up to date information. I tried to call HAL about 5 hours into the wait and that was a worthless attempt.

 

The other issue is what the heck did the do during dry dock other than next carpet and paint. Elevator #1 was out of service the entire seven day cruise. Also, both of the hot tubs in front of the main pool were closed for the entire trip. Also, lots of little things, like no speech from the captain or anybody from the staff during the Mariners luncheon the last sea day - guess they were afraid to face the crowd. Also, no deck BBQ dinner like on previous cruises.

A friend of mine was on that cruise and she told me about all the problems. I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's something we never expect from HAL. In many ways, we expect HAL to be better than that. I'm told very nice partial refunds were given. Did that help east your resentment for HAL?

[homedepot124]

You are correct, this is NOT the treatment one would expect from Holland America. The complete and total lack of respect they showed toward the guests during this whole event and during the cruise itself makes the compensation we received seem pretty minimal.

[innlady1]

Oh, I hope that's not so! We're on the next Veendam cruise!!!

 

What happened that made it not great???

 

Robin

 

We were in a Lanai that had a door to the Lower Promenade that refused to open once we were out on deck. For five days...then we finally moved to another Lanai cabin. The cruise was at the end of January...there were other little things that added up but now I've forgotten what they were...so guess they couldn't have been that bad! LOL!